The West Bengal government is looking at identifying a large area in Howrah district for declaring an industrial township, an official said on Friday.

"In Howrah, we are looking at a possibility of identifying a large area where there is a possibility of industrialisation and also there are parks like foundry, chemical, plastic, rubber, etc. We are going to include the entire area into a new industrial township. The township authority will provide all the infrastructure," said Additional Chief Secretary, Industry, Commerce and Enterprises, Rajiva Sinha.

The declaration of the industrial township is expected in the next three months, he said. A

"The area of the township is not yet decided but preliminary estimation is that the industrial township would be of around 20,000 acres and our assessment is that the entire area will have a potential to bring Rs 46,000 crore of investments," he said an event organised by Merchants' Chamber of Commerce here.

The government's expenditure would be not less than Rs 2,000 crore for providing the requisite infrastructure in the proposed township, Sinha said.

He also said the government is working on developing a MSME hub in the district.

However, at the programme, Royal Bhutanese Consulate's Trade Consul Leki Tenzin said political turmoil in Darjeeling and Basirhat should be resolved to encourage investments.

"Political turmoil in Darjeeling and Basirhat should be resolved otherwise it will discourage investments especially foreign investments," he said.

--IANS

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